Playing God
by David Hogan
Summary: The Doctor, Jo and the rest of UNIT are called into an unsuspecting village after reports of monsters, but the truth may be closer to home... A nice traditional Third Doctor story.


**Playing God**

By David Hogan

Travelling through the infinite void of space and time, visiting countless worlds during countless time periods. This is the life of the Time Lord known as The Doctor, or at least, it was. After his own people banished him to Earth, The Doctor had slowly grown to accept his current fate, until the Time Lords sent him and his assistant Jo Grant to the planet Uxarieus in order to settle a delicate issue. That adventure fresh in his mind, the man of undeterminable age has spent the last six hours tinkering with the hexagonal console in the centre of his TARDIS, hoping that he could figure out something to get it working again. He lays there, pulling out wires like a mechanic in a garage, except instead of overalls he's wearing a black velvet suit, a cape that lies on the floor underneath him like a mat, and instead of a car he's in the middle of a large spaceship, plain white floors with grey walls, bigger on the inside than out.

Just outside is Jo Grant, sitting on a chair and reading a newspaper next to a blue police box that served as the outer shell of the Time Lord craft. Seemingly uninterested in her friend's actions in the craft, Jo sits and reads, her shoulder-length blonde hair occasionally falling in front of her eyes as she looks more intently at various articles. Catching up on any news that happened while she was away, forgetting the fact that the TARDIS had only been gone from the drab UNIT lab for a few seconds, despite how much longer it was for her. It didn't seem to matter anyway, as she rarely read the newspaper.

'I used to do this kind of thing all the time back when I was first stranded here.' The Doctor shouts to Jo, 'In fact, I had the whole console removed for a time.'

Jo, still reading, just adds several 'Mmm-hmmm'-s and 'Yes, Doctor'-s to continue the conversation.

'Of course, that was before you joined us, and Ms. Shaw was my assistant.'

'Mmmm-hmmm.'

'and of course, so was Alexander the Great and a giant pink elephant named Steve.'

'Yes Doctor.'

'Jo…' The Doctor says, politely, as he now stands next to her, stepping out of the blue box, 'If you don't have any interest in what I'm saying then at least don't pretend you're listening to me.'

Jo smiles, 'Sorry.'

The Doctor smiles back, 'Yes, well, it's quite alright. I think I was beginning to bore myself.'

'Doctor,' Jo says quizzically, as she puts the paper down, 'couldn't you ask the Time Lords to send you on a few trips? Like, holidays?'

The Doctor chuckles, 'Oh Jo, if I could, I would have by now. All those planets and people to meet…'

'Like a pink elephant named Steve?'

'Ha, yes.'

The two exchange smiles again, before The Doctor moves across the open-spaced room to grab some equipment.

'Would you like to travel as well, in the TARDIS, I mean.' The Doctor asks, breezily.

'Well… the last time was a bit scary, but I'm sure there are nice planets to visit.' Jo says, he smile still continuing on from their last exchange of words.

'So is that a yes?' The Doctor wonders aloud.

'Yes, I suppose it is.'

'Then I really hope I can get it working.' The Doctor says with a handful of wires and other electrical bits and pieces gripped in his hands.

Jo gets to her feet, 'How about a cup of tea first?'

'Yes, I suppose a break wouldn't hurt.'

Jo turns to leave when the doors swing open, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart marches in. Always the hight of military discipline, once again he has his UNIT uniform on and spotless. His moustache twitching and he almost gives a smile to the two of them, before getting straight to business, as usual.

'Ah, Doctor, I thought I'd find you here.' He booms, 'Oh, and Ms. Grant too.'

'Hello Brigadier,' Jo replies, 'I was just about to make some tea, do you want some?'

'No time, Ms. Grant.' He replies, 'We've had an emergency call in.'

'Oh?' Doctor wonders aloud.

'Yes, seems a local village has been under attack from monsters, or so the stories go.'

'Really Brigadier.' The Doctor says, disappointed, 'Is there any more information than that?'

'Well it seems these aren't rumours, one of the villagers took this picture.'

The Brigadier pulls a small black and white picture from out of a file he had been carrying under his arm. The Doctor and Jo look at it intensely.

'It's just a blur, like those silly pictures of Big Foot or Yeti.'

The Doctor and the Brigadier look at each other wide-eyed after that last word.

'Yes, well…' The Doctor says, stroking his chin, 'It's worth a look at least.'

The small village of Sixoaks is as sleepy as a village can be. Consisting of a handful of houses, a small church with about three distinct phases of building on it, and a small chain of local shops, most of which are ran by villagers for villagers. "Ms. Banks bicycle stolen!" was the biggest news headline in the area last year. It caused quite a stir, until it turned out she had left it unfastened and it had fallen into a bush.

Now take that into account and you can see that a strange monster lurking in the nearby woods would indeed spread like wildfire among the members of the village. As two UNIT jeeps roll through the tiny streets, followed by a yellow Edwardian roadster named Bessie, Sixoaks was a buzz of activity… well, as much as it can be, anyway. The three cars park at the other end of the village, near the large forest and hilly terrain that comprises Sixoaks National Forest.

Slamming the jeep door behind him, the Brigadier sees his soldiers line up in front of him, among them his trusty Sergeant Benton, a tall soft-voiced soldier, and Captain Mike Yates, always cool under fire, and a fine leader of his men.

'Okay, I want a wide sweep of the area, anything unusual and I want it reported via radio immediately.' Lethbridge-Stewart says, calmly with his swagger stick firmly under his arm. 'Move out!'

The soldiers spread out across the dense forest as The Doctor and Jo watch on from Bessie.

'I guess we should join them then?' Jo asks, innocently.

'Yes, well… a walk in the countryside could be quite pleasant on a day like this.' The Doctor responds as a leaves his hand out as if to lead Jo on a dance. Jo places her hand in his and steps out of the old car, and the two of them wander into the forest without a care in the world.

A few minutes of searching and nothing unusual has shown up. The Doctor stops by some broken twigs on the floor.

'Interesting.' He says, leaning down to get a closer look.

'Broken twigs?' Jo wonders, 'Isn't that how hunters track pray?'

'Something liker that.'

'But couldn't it have been a soldier or villager?'

'It's not the fact that it's broken, it has some tissue on it. I'm not quite sure what it is…'

Jo looks closer with the Doctor, and sure enough some of the small bits of broken wood had what almost looked like red lumps of flesh on them. Jo's forehead creased in confusion.

'Is it an animal, or…?' Jo thinks aloud.

'I don't know, Jo.' The Doctor replies, finally standing upright again. 'But I think it leads off this way.' The Doctor points to his left, then pauses, 'or that way.' He points straight ahead before moving his finger to his mouth and touching it, deep in thought.

'How about you go one way, and I go the other?'

'Yes, well… You have your radio, don't you?' The Doctor asks.

'Yes.'

'I see no harm in it. But if you see anything, wait for backup, okay?'

Jo nods, and the two walk away from each other, keeping a close eye on the ground.

A short while later and Jo sees more of the red goo on a tree, and once again leans in to look, this time with a queasy look on her face. 'Ugh.' Jo uncontrollably says out loud as she sees closer. The sudden breaking of a twig in the background makes Jo take notice, then she hears footsteps, slow and lumbering footsteps. A little spooked, she slowly turns around and then screams in terror. Standing before her is what looks like a regular man, but with see-through skin, all his muscles and some bones showing through. It lets out a muffled cry as it reaches its hands out towards her.

Jo shakes her head as she walks backwards, but the creature is still stumbling forward. Jo backs up to a tree and closes her eyes, but then hears some footsteps running up.

'Good god, what's that?' the voice of Captain Yates rings out, happening to be the closest UNIT member to Jo, he had run towards her scream. The thing continues to move towards Jo, arms out reached. Not willing to risk a shot, Yates runs up and grabs the thing by the wrists, trying to stop it from grabbing the now panicked Ms. Grant. The thing struggles with the Captain as The Doctor arrives, having also heard the scream. He looks at the creature in confusion before seeing Yates' wrestle with the creature come to an end by him leading it down a relatively steep hill.

The Doctor runs up to them both.

'Are you alright Jo?' he asks.

'Yes…' she says, out of breath, 'I think so.'

The Doctor nods, and then turns to Yates, who too is catching his breath.

'Thank you, Captain.' He says, with a smile.

'Just doing my job, Doctor.' He replies.

The Doctor runs down the hill to the side of the creature. Yates and Jo soon follow.

'What do you think it is, Doctor? An alien, I assume?' Yates says, as he gets his radio off of his belt to call it in.

'If it is alien, Mr. Yates, then it's remarkably similar is composition to your species.' The Doctor replies.

The Captain calls the Brigadier to there location, informing him that they've captured a monster.

'Doctor, is it… dead?' Jo asks, tentatively.

'I think so, Jo…' The Doctor replies, slowly, 'Which is odd, because it certainly wasn't the fall that killed it…'

A short while passes and a reasonably large white tent has been erected in a forest clearing. Inside, The Doctor is looking over the body with some basic equipment that he had with him, while Jo, The Brigadier and Mike Yates look on helplessly from the background. Leaning back away from the body with a sigh, The Doctor starts packing away some of his equipment.

'Well Doctor?' Lethbridge-Stewart wonders.

'It's not alien, if that's what you're wondering.' The Doctor replies.

'But Doctor,' Jo interrupts, 'if it's not alien, then what is it? It's certainly not human!'

'On the contrary Jo, it is indeed human.' The Doctor responds, 'Though perhaps not fully developed.'

'What do you mean?' Yates wonders.

'If my theory is right, then this is most likely a failed attempt at cloning.'

'Cloning?' Jo asks, 'You mean, like, copying a human?'

'Yes Jo. It seems the experiment was a failure, which explains the underdeveloped skin and organs.'

'Why on Earth did it attack Ms. Grant then, Doctor?' The Brig wonders.

'My guess is that if its body wasn't fully developed then it's unlikely the mind was. In fact I'd be surprised if this clone had anything other than a handful of basic instincts. The mind of a child… a new born even.'

'But it was walking, and it lunged for Jo, Doctor…' Yates interjects.

'Yes. If it was a clone of a fully grown man then maybe it retained some instincts the babies go on to develop with age, like the ability to walk and to seek other people's help.'

'Great,' Yates says, looking unhappy with the news, 'so I effectively killed a helpless child?'

The Doctor smiles warmly, 'I like to think of it more as helping a friend in trouble, Mike. Plus, the tumble down the hill is unlikely to have killed it. It's more likely it died simply due to the cloning process being incomplete.'

Mike Yates nods as Jo puts her hand on his shoulder and smiles. The Brigadier reshuffles himself into a proper up-right position, as if to get his mind back on the job.

'Right then, Doctor.' He says, confidently, 'So what are we dealing with here?'

'Well Brigadier,' The Doctor replies, 'Most likely a scientist or team of scientists that have been trying to clone human beings and then be careless enough to let the poor unfortunate creatures roam out of the lab. Playing God is something no man should do.'

Yates, with a new found sense of purpose, stands to attention, 'Sir, we have to find whoever is responsible and put a stop to this.'

'We will, Captain.' Lethbridge-Stewart responds, 'but I'm concerned about these clones. Doctor?'

'Yes, they should be of no harm, but they may get in our way by no fault of their own. It wouldn't be right to kill them, obviously.'

'Right…' The Brig says, before thinking for a few moments, 'Captain, we have some non-lethal knockout gas back at HQ, correct?'

'Yes sir.'

'Very well. I need to head back and call Geneva to update them, the phone lines around here are down, have been for some time, apparently.'

'I'll come to and rally more men, sir.'

'Very well, Captain.' The Brigadier then turns sharply towards The Doctor, 'we will be as quick as we can.'

'Yes,' The Doctor says with a smile, never very interested in military protocol, 'I'm sure you will, Brigadier.'

Lethbridge-Stewart leaves the tent, followed by Captain Yates as he nods another note of thanks towards Jo for comforting him.

A few moments of silence pass before Jo looks at The Doctor, who is still staring at the failed clone, 'Are you alright, Doctor?'

'Yes, Jo.' He replies, 'but sometimes things like this remind me that we don't have to travel far and wide in the TARDIS to find trouble.'

As if to purposefully break the tension, Sgt. Benton suddenly pulls back the tent cover and asks where the Brigadier just went.

'Back to HQ to re-supply and pander to the higher ups.' The Doctor retorts, 'Usual business for him, you know?'

Benton nods, 'Very good sir,' he replies, 'but the phone lines are down and the radios don't work long distance, and I need to inform him.'

'Inform him of what?'

'Well, we found more of the red goo you reported and started finding more and more of it in a particular direction.'

'Red goo? Really Benton... Well, I take it you found something?'

'Yes sir, we found a set of large steel doors where the red…stuff stops.'

The Doctor stands up, suddenly more serious. 'The lab? Well, I suppose I'd better take a look.' He turns to Jo, 'You stay here and inform the Brigadier and Captain Yates when they arrive.'

'No Doctor, I'm coming with you. I want to see this for myself.' Jo says, with steely determination in her voice.

'Oh very well.' The Doctor says, already assuming that this would be her response.

'I'll leave a man here to inform the Brigadier when he returns.' Benton adds, as if to help get Jo off the hook.

'Yes, well, come on then.' The Doctor says, ushering Benton out of the tent, 'Let's see this secret laboratory, shall we?'

Slowly walking up the steep hills of Sixoaks National Forest, The Doctor, Jo and Benton, along with several nameless UNIT troopers, eventually arrive at a large hill, a large hill thick with trees, bushes and a small brook. Tucked in among all the pleasant scenery was a set of heavy steel doors embedded deep in the dirt of the large mound.

'Very impressive.' The Doctor notes as he steps up to the doors.

'What is it Doctor?' Jo wonders aloud, 'Is it an air raid shelter?'

'Probably not, Jo. Not this far into the countryside. I'd say it was more likely originally a resistance bunker set up during World War II. They were dotted about the landscape to use in case England was ever invaded, to send messages and such. I wonder how long our scientist friends have been secretly using it?'

'It's a bit small though, isn't it Doctor?'

'Perhaps it's bigger on the inside.' The Doctor responds, and Jo sighs as the Doctor smirks at her.

As The Doctor talks, deep underground a hand is hovering over a set of buttons, The Doctor's image on a small screen in front of it.

'Did she call him Doctor?' a voice asks itself. 'Maybe… a UNIT doctor could…'

The voice stops and the hand slowly moves towards another set of buttons.

The Doctor, Jo and Benton start looking at the doors closely, seeing if there was a way in.

The hand suddenly presses down on a button and a steel gate slams down behind The Doctor and his allies, trapping them between it and the steel doors. The hand presses another button and the doors open, slowly. The man in front of the controls leaves his seat.

'Well…' The Doctor says, slowly walking into a large, dark tunnel, 'I guess we've been invited in. It would be a shame to let them down.'

The three of them walk slowly down the dark corridor; Benton draws his gun, as if ready to fight off an ambush. A brief walk felt like hours as all three of them were expecting something terrible to befall them at any point. The tension is broken when a large door slides open and light floods the long tunnel, causing all three of them to attempt to shield the light for a few seconds. The Doctor leads the way into the room, slowly.

In what shouldn't have come as too big a shock given the circumstances, the room is full with expensive looking equipment and various tubes of unknown purpose. Each panel is full of buttons, lights and small boxy screens revealing endless numbers and letters.

'Good grief!' the Doctor exclaims, 'It's no wonder the local phone lines have been down, I'm surprised all this expensive equipment hasn't taken down the national grid!'

'Oh Doctor,' Jo responds, 'It's amazing; I bet you could get your TARDIS running with this sort of equipment!'

The Doctor is about to respond when Benton interjects.

'TARDIS?' he wonders.

'Never mind.' The Doctor replies, 'Let's look around, shall we?'

Like a labyrinth, each room has several doors leading off in different directions. They decide on the door to his right, and go through to see more of the same equipment.

'This could take hours…' Jo sighs.

'Indeed.' The Doctor replies as he opens another door, then looks surprised, 'Or not.'

Behind the door he opened was a large tube firmly attached to the ceiling and floor of the wider, more open room. Inside the tube was a fully grown man, all sorts of wires protruding out of all sorts of places.

'Is that a –' Benton starts to ask.

'No.' The Doctor interrupts, 'That's no clone. That's a man.'

'Not just any man, he's my son.'

Everyone turns to see a thin, distressed man in a lab coat. His hair is half grey and down to his shoulder in length, clearly hasn't been combed in a good while. The same goes for a grey beard that has taken over his face and lower-jaw. He lets out a rather unpleasant cough before continuing.

'That woman called you doctor, did she not?'

'That's right…' The Doctor says, wearily.

'Can you look at my son?'

The desperation is his low, cracked voice was obvious, but the Doctor knew that his basic medical skills wouldn't be able to help someone who had to be hooked up like the man in the tube was. Not being able to flat out crush his hope, The Doctor picked up a clipboard from beside the tube. A quick read confirmed his suspicions. He then reads the man last name and puts two and two together.

'I'm sorry, Professor Green, I take it?'

'That's right.'

'I'm sorry, but this man is clinically deceased. I really wish I could help you, but I can't.'

The dishevelled Professor's expression didn't change, 'I'm such a fool. I knew deep down you wouldn't be any different than those quacks who worked at the hospital.' Green's voice suddenly became raised, 'Get out! Get out of my lab! Now!'

The three of them didn't move, and The Doctor was finally ready to let his theory be confirmed.

'Let me get this straight, professor. Your son meets with a terrible accident, and the doctors declare him dead. You take him away, store him in your lab and attempt to clone him, I am correct?'

'Yes! I'm just being a good father, you have no idea the pain I felt losing my wife, like hell I'm going to lose my son to the same car accident!'

Sympathy beats out any anger The Doctor could feel towards the misguided, grieving father.

'I understand your position, but a completely perfect clone is not possible, not with this level of technology. You're only creating facsimiles that exist for a short, painful life-span before dying. It's inhuman and unethical.'

'Don't you dare talk to me with that tone!'

Jo steps in front of the Green, 'Listen, The Doctor didn't mean any harm by it. We just want to help you.'

'Move out of the way, girl. I don't want to hurt any of you… b-but I will if you get in the way of my son's recovery!'

'Listen,' the Doctor continues, 'even if you create a perfect body replica, how will you transfer your son's memories, knowledge and feelings, hm? You'll be left something with the mind of a new born and the body of an adult. Are you prepared to deal with such an outcome?'

That last sentence really kicked in hard, and Green starts muttering to himself, and biting his nails with the tension.

'Y-you don't know what you're talking about… I-I…'

Benton slowly approaches behind the maddened professor, 'Listen, I'm sure we can figure something out…'

'Get away from me!'

Green pushes Benton back, causing him to lose his balance slightly. He steadies himself on a control panel behind him, pressing a few buttons by mistake. Almost as soon as he did red lights start flashing above a door behind Professor Green, whose eyes are now wide and panicked.

'No! No! You oaf, what have you done!'

Benton looks confused at Greens berating him, given it was green who tipped him off balance.

The Professors panic became clear as several unfinished clones start stumbling out of the slowly opening door. One or two of them crawling, having no use of their legs, others pushing past less finished clones to try and get to this new room quicker. Nearly all of them are moaning, some almost crying.

'Good lord. How many have you created?' The Doctor says as Jo grips him from his side in terror.

Benton draws his gun, but doesn't really know why, 'I… I can't shoot them Doctor. What do we do?'

'I don't know. Why don't we ask the Professor here?'

'I… I don't know, just don't hurt them! Please!'

'These… unfortunate abominations are not your son, Professor!' The Doctor snaps back, finally reaching his boiling point.

'They're close enough! You don't understand!'

They all start backing off to the other side of the lab as the stumbling, moaning clones sway ever closer. The Doctor hugs Jo, who buries herself in his jacket. Suddenly two small grenades roll in amongst the clones and let off a white gas. The clones start dropping to the floor, slowly, as if going to sleep.

'Sleeping gas? Ah!' The Doctor quickly puts two and two together and turns to the door they entered from to see the Brigadier and Mike Yates, both holding one more gas grenade each, and tossing them this time deep into the room where the clones came from.

'You monster!' Professor Green shouts, 'What have you done?! You've killed them!' Green starts pounding on the Brigadier's chest.

'I can assure you they're quite alright.' He mutters, trying to fend off the confused Professor. The Doctor releases Jo, who's calmed down somewhat, and grabs Green by the shoulder.

'Calm yourself man! It's over!'

The Doctors sharp words and serious face sink into Professor Green, and he slumps to his knees, beginning to cry. The Doctor kneels beside him and tries to comfort him. Jo does the same.

A short while later and The Doctor and Jo are talking beside Bessie. The Brigadier walks up to them with news.

'Right, that's Professor Green sorted out.' He proclaims, triumphantly.

'Don't be too hard on the Professor,' Jo asks, 'he just missed his son.'

'Yes,' Lethbridge-Stewart continues, 'I know. Ghastly business this. He's being sent to a psychiatric ward and will receive extreme grief counselling. What happens after that depends on him.'

'What about the Professor's son, and the clones?' Jo asks, innocently. The Doctor closes his eyes, knowing the answer the Brigadier is about to reply with.

'His son I'm afraid there is nothing we can do for him. We will inform any surviving relatives and they can arrange proper … services for him.'

'It might be a shock.' The Doctor adds, 'You don't know what Green told his family after the accident.'

'Indeed.'

'How awful.' Jo says, shaking her head.

'As for the clones, we'll keep them under observation and under medication. If any are likely to survive long term UNIT will have to arrange some sort of special care for them. Don't worry though, Ms. Grant, we won't kill any of them.'

The Brigadier then turns to the Doctor. 'I say, Doctor, how did Green get this technology?'

'By the looks of the notes strewn about the lab, he and his wife were working on cloning technology together for a number of years. By a sad twist of fate, the Professor found himself in need of it before it was ready. It gave him an extra layer of hope that most grieving parents in a similar situation don't have. It's what kept him from accepting fate.'

'Hmmm…' The Brigadier mulls it over, 'As I said: Ghastly business.'

A young UNIT soldier runs up to the Brig and hands him some notes, and soon the two walk off back towards the lab, Lethbridge-Stewart barking orders as they go.

Jo sighs, 'Well, I guess we can get going now.' The two get up off the side of Bessie and walk around to the doors.

'Doctor… do you think we will ever perfect cloning? I mean, proper cloning?'

'Well Jo, many races have done so, but people are the sum of their memories and experiences, that's something that can't be replicated.'

Jo smiles, 'I suppose so. Say, maybe when we get back we can finally create a memory of us having that cup of tea?'

'Ha, sounds good to me Jo.'

The two drive off, passing the now a lot less sleepy village of Sixoaks.


End file.
